Regret
by RubyinParadise
Summary: Snake Eyes/Scarlett one shot with a minor Mainframe cameo. Poor Mainframe.


**Some Scarlett and Snake Eyes because the comics just haven't been doing their relationship justice (or their characters but that's another rant). Maybe I just need to get over it or write more fanfic. Lately in the IDW Snake Eyes and GI Joe titles, Snake and Scarlett have shared some small moments and I was really hoping for some lovin for poor Scarlett when Snake Eyes returned from saving Duke's sorry ass, but no, he just took off again so I'm hoping Dixon's saving it for some future high stakes moment. In the meantime, I can write my dribble. I have Snake signing here even though he doesn't in the IDW comics, but I'll be damned if I'm going to have them text each other while sitting in the same room. Enjoy! Disclaimer: don't own these characters.**

She opened the door a couple of inches, her hand pressed lightly against the metal frame, cringing in sync to the slight creak that revealed her presence, still afraid he'd ask her to leave or worse, ignore her altogether. Scarlett sighed. She thought they'd traversed the ice barrier after his mission to kill Raja Khalikhan. He told her the note she left him had helped him defeat Khalikhan. He touched the screen. God, she'd felt that caress through the dam tablet.

But on his return from rescuing Duke, he reverted back to his dark and distant demeanor and threw her off balance again, had her skittering back to the insecure crevasses she thought she'd divested with her awkward adolescence.

Fuck this. She wasn't a gangly sixteen year-old anymore and if she wanted to talk to Snake Eyes, she'd enter his room, right now.

She placed her left foot into the room—his space—and inhaled deeply. "Snake Eyes?"

She poked her head in and glanced around the room. No black clad sumptuous body lurking in the shadows of the bare room lit by a few flickering candles.

She didn't want to be as disappointed as she felt. She dipped her head and turned, preparing her retreat.

A strong hand gripped her left shoulder and the moment, a split second really, lengthened to an infinite point in time with the flurry of sensations coursing through her at his touch. She tilted her head back around and saw him and his face, fully revealed to her in all its damaged brilliance. She almost, almost gasped at the small smile playing at the corners of his lips, but bit it back just in time.

He released her shoulder and she stepped into his room. He shut the door behind her and motioned for her to take a spot on his bamboo mat.

For a moment she sat mute across from him, transfixed with the play of candlelight on his face, light and shadow slashing across his forehead, his lips, his steel blue eyes, his bare chest, crisscrossed with scars and muscles.

He lifted his hands. _I hear you're leading a mission._

She tore her eyes away from the rippling muscles in his arms. "Finally." Scarlett spat out. "I'm sick of slouching behind computer screens while everyone else is out risking their lives." Sick of watching you battle the enemy with the military Mary Sue by your side. Scarlett made sure to hide her resentment, jealousy at the Snake and Helix pairing. Wasn't hard to do given her excitement at finally heading a mission.

Snake however surprised her with the crease to his brow, the unmistakable concern flashing in his eyes.

She tightened her lips. "I used to kick ass on the field and take names. I don't need you or any other person on this team treating me like I'm some dam china doll on display at the second hand shop."

Snake Eyes smiled. _If anything, you'd be one of those porcelain dolls with the big puffy dresses and wide brimmed hats like in Gone With..._ He stilled his hands at the look of pure emerald fire she scorched at him and replaced the smile with a small frown. _I know you're capable, but my enemies_…he clenched his right hand before resuming…_are vicious and want to weaken me, break down my defenses. _He dipped his chin towards his chest.

"Your enemies? What the hell do they have to do with anything?"

He lifted his chin and gazed at her without blinking, revealing a soul more battered than his body and worry etched in his brows, worry his enemies will find her, and this time she didn't stifle her gasp or the shiver that skipped across every nerve ending at once.

Oh.

He grazed her cheek with his fingers before wrapping his hand behind her head gathering her into a kiss that searched her soul, as if seeking a response to the glimpse into his he'd just given her.

"Sure took you long enough," she said when he released her lips, her voice slightly dizzy.

His smile was small, but contained just enough wicked to make her heart hiccup. _I may take a long time, but once I start, I don't stop._

She'd waited a long time for this moment, to experience the passion hidden beneath the black layers of cloth and blank looks, but she wasn't quite prepared for the flirtatious? The sexy? The delicious layers of Snake unpeeled before her.

He leaned back and gave her a look she couldn't decipher. He ran a finger across her lips.

"You confused me," she said. "Although that's a given, but after Khalikhan, well…I thought we'd reached an understanding, but you returned from saving Duke and took off again without so much as a wave."

_You seemed so worried about Duke's condition from the bio weapon._

She remembered their brief conversation via the touch screens when she asked him to retrieve Duke and find an antidote. Snake asking her, 4 Duke? For me, she told him. For all of us.

"Jesus, Snake. Has this really been about Duke? Can't you tell from my actions where my interest lies?" She almost used the words heart lies, but she wasn't ready to give him that much. Not yet.

_Every time I convince myself you might have some attraction to me, I look in the mirror and the hope quickly shatters and I figure you're just trying to assuage some kind of twisted guilt over what happened with Chimera. Even now..._ He dropped his hands to his thighs.

Scarlett laughed ignoring the narrowing of his eyes. "I may give you the sweet, dangerous assignments you love out of guilt. I may loan you treasured family heirlooms for good luck. Hell, I'll even flirt with you, but if you think I'll kiss you out of some misguided guilt complex, you're one sorry sack of Ninja bones." She crossed her arms across her chest, her laughter trailing off in one last chuckle.

He stood in a swift Ninja move, the power coiled within flexing against the muscles of his chest, and lifted her with firm hands on her shoulders. This time his kiss seared her to the core, ripping through her defenses, leaving her gasping for air when he finally wrenched away with a ragged breath. When he straightened, he calmed his shaking hands and signed._ You have no idea how much I want you, but I won't be a consolation prize or play guest of honor at the pity party._

Scarlett traced the scars on his face, along his temples, across his cheek, to his mouth. "I don't see any of this when I look at you." She dropped her hand and turned away from him. "Snake, the only thing keeping me away from you is you." Her voice was soft, coming from a place of longing.

She inhaled deeply and prepared to leave the room, leave him. She could tell Snake over and over Duke no longer stirred any passion in her heart until it turned to a nauseous mantra, but she can't battle with Snake's own insecurities. Maybe that's why he chooses Helix for missions. Helix never challenges him. But she always will. And he knows it.

A small tear wound a path down her cheek. She lifted her hand to wipe it before Snake saw it, but his hand beat her to it.

He pulled her cheek around to face him. She looked down at the floor, separating herself from him, gathering courage to leave. She pushed his hand off her chin. "I've done everything I can to show you how I feel. If you can't accept it, then I'm done here. I'm not going to beg." Her final words bit the air around them. She swung towards the door, but he clenched her wrist and drove her back against the wall.

_Then let me beg,_ he signed before searing her with his kiss. This time he didn't hold back, pouring all his desire and longing into the kiss. His hard body pressed into her.

###

Scarlett sat in the hangar, waiting for the chopper to transport her and the team. She kept her head down, reading over last minute mission details on her tablet, closing her eyes when they attempted to stray, scan the hangar for a certain black clad man. She squeezed her eyes when memories of his lovemaking flashed in her mind. She shook her head and opened them unable to stop from glancing around the hangar. No team. No Snake. Maybe he regrets what happened?

She sighed. Last night was incredible, more than she'd ever hoped. Take it for what it was, Shana, and hope the rest falls into place. For Snake to show such passion and intimacy, well, it was a declaration for him, but she still had difficulty quashing the disappointment over his absence. Not even a good-bye. Not even a wave.

Footsteps drew her from her funk. She knew it wasn't Snake. She didn't think the man had feet, silent as he was. "Scarlett. I finished downloading the rest of the mission specs and sent it to you." Mainframe stopped in front of her.

"Thanks." She gave him a quick look before turning to the screen.

"Scarlett I thought more about what you said in the storeroom."

She murmured a response while reviewing the data.

"I'm not going to pine from a distance like some sad school boy with a crush."

"Mainframe. I told you to focus on our mission." She tapped the screen. "This is not the time or place to have this discussion." Her voice elevated in annoyance.

"I want you and I'm going to…"

Scarlett's head popped up. "What?"

Scarlett didn't know exactly what happened. One second Mainframe was saying he wanted her and the next he was gone. She sat up and darted her eyes around the room, tense, her hand on a knife tucked in a belt around her waist.

She heard a soft step behind her and whirled around to see Snake Eyes. She lowered the knife. "Snake. Something's up. Mainframe was talking to me then he disappeared like some shadow just absorbed him. I don't know what's going on."

Snake approached her, his steps easy. Not the stride of someone who was worried about an attack. Scarlett raised her eyebrows in suspicion. "Do you know what happened to Mainframe?"

Only inches from her now, he shrugged.

"You don't seem very concerned."

_About Mainframe?_ He signed. _No. Can't say I am._

Realization set in. "Did you…you didn't hurt him, did you?"

He tapped his chest with his fingertips. Scarlett read the innocent who me in the gesture. The incident had provided a brief distraction, but suddenly Scarlett was aware of him and the electric currents coursing through her—he was here.

He ran a finger across her chin then lifted his mask halfway up his face to free his mouth. Be careful. He mouthed the words. She answered him with a couple of small jerky nods. He took her hand and placed her grandfather's compass in her palm. _Come back to me._

She smiled and leaned in to kiss him, a teasing kiss, a promise. She broke the kiss, but he reached around to pull her head in for more, tugging her body against his. He finally released her and signed. _You don't regret last night?_

Scarlett's eyes widened in amazement then slanted to match her sultry grin. "I don't regret anything Snake Eyes. Now you, you better watch yourself." She ran a finger down his chest, watching the muscles constrict beneath the tight black fabric. "Because this time, you will dam well regret it if you keep me waiting so long for a piece of Ninja when I return."

Scarlett turned to the voices of her team bouncing off the walls of the hangar. She knew Snake had done his disappearing Ninja hocus pocus behind her, but he was hanging up there somewhere, watching her. She blew a kiss towards the rafters, widened her grin, and sauntered towards her team.


End file.
